Starting Thursday, Jan. 19, the center's monthly Art After 5 gatherings will feature musicians chosen specifically for their devotion to original sounds.

"We want to provide opportunities to local and regional artists to share what they are passionate about," said Courtney Gardner, interim director. "That means musicians as well as the visual arts."

The new approach has been in the works for months.

Last fall, as Gardner was brainstorming ideas for the anniversary, she talked to the center's marketing director, Mike McGrann, about how to better showcase local art and create new connections with the community.

McGrann is a major music fan, a man who gets excited talking about rock bands such as the Pixies and Arcade Fire as well as classic bluegrass music and new folk groups such as Mumford & Sons.

An idea took hold to recast Art After 5 — a well-established after-work party at Pfac — as a showcase for fresh, eclectic sounds. The series has long been a dependable venue for quality local music. Songwriting musicians including the Annie Johnson Band and Momentary Prophets have performed there in the past.

Building on that momentum, McGrann booked artists for 2012 who play original music. All have never performed at Art After 5 before. The lineup, created from a list of nominations made by this reporter, covers a range of genres from the "folkestral" style of Chesapeake-based Bison to the reggae of Hampton's EVER-G and the jazz fusion of As-1, also a Hampton act.

"We want to reach out to the community in different ways, to bring in some people who have never been to Pfac before," said McGrann. "People can come and hear a band and at same time see visual art being made, someone out in gallery painting or making pots … I can't think of anywhere else where you can hear a band like Bison or EVER-G, very different types of bands, but also see someone making a beautiful water color." At least two artists typically demonstrate their methods at Art After 5 events.

Expanding the center's reach and creating an artistic crossroads is the central aim.

"What's also important for me, is that we've got artists talking to bankers, business people talking to college students," McGrann said. "It's already a very diverse audience we bring in. Now, we're reaching out to community and making new connections that might not otherwise happen."

All this ties into the center's mission to make art more of a participation sport on the Peninsula and beyond. "Art isn't meant to be a passive experience," McGrann said. "Music really enhances that idea. It can create an ambience, a platform for people to talk about art and ideas with new people they just met."

Art After 5, which emerged from an earlier series called Arts Café, seeks to reshape common perceptions about what takes place at an arts center.

"People tend to think that when they come into a visual art experience, it's quiet and you're there to interact with only one or two people. It's all in very hushed tones," McGrann said. "That's not at all what Art After 5 is about. It's about experiencing and sharing and hopefully discovering something new."

Here's a closer look at the musical groups set to perform at Peninsula Fine Arts Center in coming months.

Bison, Jan. 19. It's safe to say there's no band in Hampton Roads quite like Bison. Acoustic instruments including violin and cello back singer-songwriter Ben Hardesty and his father Dan Hardesty, who adds banjo and mandolin. Percussion, bells and keyboards fill out the tunes, which contain smatterings of indie-rock style. The band's unique sound is heard on "Switzerland," a tune that is currently in rotation at rock radio outlet WROX-FM (96.1). "When I write music, I ultimately hope it brings people a sense of joy and hopefulness in whatever circumstance they're in," Ben Hardesty told the Daily Press last year. "I will take this as far as it goes."

As-1, Feb. 16. A skilled electric guitarist, Carlton Savage has been playing with various funk, R&B and jazz groups for decades. In the early 1970s, he joined fellow high school students in a funk-soul band called The Equatics. That band made one album before breaking up and it's become a collectors item among some R&B fanatics. Savage, a Hampton resident, is also known as a member of Gator Allmond's Spice of Life Band. More recently, he joined drummer Jae Sinnett's funk big band named House and Sinnett. As a sideman, he's backed major label acts including Richard Elliott, Ronnie Laws and Angela Bofill. With As-1, Carlton collaborates with keyboard man and signer Greg "Termite" Rich. Expect deft guitar jazz influenced by the likes of Larry Carlton and George Benson.

Broken Mouth Annie, March 15. A rock band that hails from the wilds of Suffolk, Broken Mouth Annie is fronted by singer-guitarist Anson Morris and singer-percussionist Victoria Hundley. The group features musicians who are veterans of the local alternative rock scene. The sound of the current group draws in acoustic Americana influences, however. "Alt-country meets grunge meets PBR sort of thing," is the description posted on the band's Facebook page. "I've been playing in bands since the late 1990s," said Morris, a third generation farmer who lives and works in Whaleyville. "Locally now, it's a more fertile music scene than I ever remember." The group is eager to share its original music with a new audience at Peninsula Fine Arts Center. "If we don't get paid for the next five years, but get fans who listen to something new, it's totally worth it," Hundley said.

EVER-G, April 19. Singer EVER-G, aka Everett Streete, is a Jamaican-born artist who has helped keep the sound of reggae alive on the Peninsula since 1996, when he settled in Hampton after living and playing in Florida, Washington, D.C., and New York. Streete has recorded five albums of original tunes including "Jah Love" in 2010. His list of influence includes Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown and Burning Spear. "I'm totally committed to the message of peace, love and unity," Streete told the Daily Press in 2010. The singer is set to perform at the Hampton Reggae Fest at Hampton Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 21, along with acts including The Itals, Culture and The Meditations.

The Fuzz Band, May 17. Hampton's Fuzz Band plays a hard-to-define, easy-to-enjoy blend of R&B, hip-hop, jazz, rock and soul. Formed in 1997 by students at Hampton University, the group has toured regional, nationally — even internationally. In 2006, the band was invited by the USO to play for U.S. troops serving in Iraq. Led by trumpeter Duane Smith, the group is known for hosting Fuzzy Wednesday open mike sessions across the region where creativity and improvisation is encouraged. The band's recordings of original songs include "Without Boundaries," "Collision," "Change," and "Change of the Guards." In 2010, the band was tapped to perform at the prestigious Hampton Jazz Festival.